Editor: With the 42nd Canadian election coming on Oct. 19, many writers and much of the media are attempting to bash Canada’s PM Stephen Harper.
It’s amusing that retired Langley Advance editor Bob Groeneveld continues obsessive jabs against Harper. Hey Bob — relax, try to let it slide and enjoy retired life. Langley has traditionally been a conservative electorate for years.
The NDP, Liberals and Greens are desperately trying to make Harper look bad with false allegations of the government being “Anti-Science.”
Big media is also playing the “group think” innuendo game repeating the “Muzzled Scientist” mantra. Only one problem, the premise is all wrong.
No doubt it’s going to be about global warming and climate science, with the big Paris Summit coming up. The big unions, like the 60,000-member Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, and other unions are also partisan and agitating against Harper.
It’s obvious the enviro-activists want to use public scientists at taxpayer expense for the purpose of promoting their causes.
It’s really bureaucrat scientists ludicrously attempting to establish government policy to suit their own political agenda.
“Environment Canada forbids scientists from speaking publicly on issues such as climate change,” according to the Canadian Press.
Well, I should hope so. You can’t have public employees releasing or announcing contentious ideology-influenced information (whether propaganda or not) in all directions.
The U.S. has the Hatch Act, which is specific legislation to limit political activities of federal bureaucrats.
So-called public scientists and bureaucrats with some science background who work for us taxpayers in structured government departments should report within the established chain of command. Anybody who has a job knows they can’t go over their bosses’ heads and pronounce company policy to suit their own personal agenda.
It’s natural protocol that government departments assign the work and control the process of that work, and determine the worthiness of information release and who is authorized to publicly release it.
It’s normal worldwide that government scientists have less freedom to speak publicly than independent or university scientists.
We should be thanking the Harper Conservative government who are supposed to be managing our business responsibly, not wasting tax dollars catering to endless climate change propaganda.
Roland Seguin,
Langley